Living in the shadow of RS6 cannot be easy for RS7. The first is the über rei-da-cool family car, adored everywhere and always present in countless fantasy garage lists of three, five and even ten cars as the “diary”. With good reason, because few cars achieve the duality of being a practical family car that can also make your driver smile when you are alone on a road more interesting than those that usually go with the family on board.
In theory, the RS7 should offer the same, although without space for the dog in the suitcase. But in the past he was a close relative of the RS6 in name only, looking a little boring, a little boring to drive and performing with the fast Audi stereotypes of before. However, the new RS7 proved to be a genuine alternative to the RS6, and in the seven months that ours spent with us, only when the Towler clan (the assistant editor Adam being the current guardian of the 7) needed to go on a mass vacation at increased capacity that a van offers has been lost.
Perhaps the biggest challenge for the RS7 is not from inside, but from outside the Audi Sport family, because if you want about 600bhp in a slightly coupe-like four-door body, you have a lot of options. Also in the VW Group is the Porsche Panamera, while Mercedes-AMG has its GT 4-Door and BMW has updated its entry with the car you see here: the M8 Gran Coupe, which is available to UK customers only at competition finish.
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The technical composition of the M8 Competition Gran Coupe and RS7 Sportback is at the limit of the premium supersaloon available on the market. V8 Twin-turbo? Checks. About 600bhp? Yes, 592bhp for the RS7 and 616bhp for the M8. More than five hundred lb feet of torque? Please, anything less would be an insult. Eight-speed automatic gearboxes? What else would you expect, other than possibly a double clutch unit? Unfortunately, more conventional manufacturers are now clinging to torque converters, claiming that the shift speeds are close enough to a double clutch and that the cost of developing both is a luxury, not a necessity. BMW has also followed Audi’s 40-year tradition and now offers only its top-of-the-range M-car with four-wheel drive xDrive. Although, unlike the Audi, you can, diving into the submenus of the iDrive system, make your M8 Gran Coupe with rear-wheel drive.
The initial thought when bringing the M8 to the RS7 party was that the BMW would be clearer in areas where the RS7 still reverts to the brand type. Often, with our RS7, whoever was behind the wheel liked the unexpected interaction it provides. Your V8 has an enthusiastic character that is combined with a sharp accelerator and perfectly proportioned proportions, providing a transmission system that favors pushing from behind instead of pulling from the front, expertly aided by the standard sports differential. But go beyond that 70 percent operational window and the RS7’s weight and size come into play, the road never seems big enough to exploit its performance and give it room to move. About five meters long and two meters wide, an RS7 needs a little space to move.
BMW M GmbH knows how to make your performance cars look special and dance regardless of the speed you are traveling and the road you are on. To some extent, at least. And in fact, where the M8 outperforms RS7 is when you look for and need the last 20-30 percent of feedback and accuracy. As with our RS7, you need to find the right modes: comfort shock absorbers for both, sporty steering to add some weight, more accentuated acceleration and gear shifting, and whatever differential settings are available for you to switch to the most alert mode and reactive. Configured accordingly, the M8 GC is less prescriptive than the RS7 in everything it does. Your body control and cushioning are more in tune with your expectations, your steering is faster – less comfortable than the Audi, requiring a higher degree of load before you feel confident you’re connected, but when the M8 is out a more precise line. And your V8 is more energetic and responsive to inputs and therefore easier to maintain a balanced engine speed when needed.
However, the RS7 has the most immersive V8, both in terms of noise and how it develops across its power range, and taps into its torque, a benefit of being used across the VW Group from Bentley to Lamborghini, and by Porsche in between, meaning that Audi is able to access the available data and adjust accordingly. On the M8 you only gain speed, albeit at a frantic pace, while on the RS7 the octaves rise and fall according to your pace, adding a hiss of excitement along the way.
BMW scores higher with its carbon ceramic brakes (an option of £ 7995, compared to £ 9200 for the Audi equivalent), which are much easier to moderate and natural in the pedal feel, making braking much smoother and consistent when you’re pushing. And when there are 2,000 kg or more to slow down, you need the anchors to be on your side. (The M8 turns the scale at 1980 kg, Audi turns even more at 2,065 kg.)
But, despite all the involvement and emotions provided by the M8 GC Comp, you need to travel to experience them. In pure terms, the BMW is a more focused and more athletic supersaloon than the Audi. It certainly answers the question more comprehensively than the RS7 when it comes to asking which one offers the best performance when speed and space are not restricted. But here’s the crux. They are passenger cars, designed to offer a level of performance slightly above normal, which both certainly offer, but if you are not exploring all the performance of the M8, your advantage over the RS7 is practically eliminated. In fact, at more balanced speeds, the RS7 returns more time.
An unexpected black mark for the RS7, however, is its interior. Much is said about the quality that Audi manages to project in its cockpits, and our RS7 looks just as solid today as it did before starting its uninterrupted life with us. But for all the shiny piano-black finish and the welcome use of Alcantara, there is a lot of £ 47,000 A7 TDI here to justify the starting price of £ 95,000 for an RS7 (our fast fleet cost £ 140,000 …) . The M8 from £ 123,880 looks and feels much more tailored, with the quality of its materials on par with those of the machine produced in Ingolstadt. It also has the quietest interior to cover great miles. Both cars swallow 300 miles (the best their fuel range can offer) in the blink of an eye, and only a quality of driving that is focused on performance, especially in the case of BMW prevents these two from being left-field alternatives for a more traditional GT car.
If our time with the RS7 Sportback demonstrated anything, it is that the RS6 Avant no longer has the advantage of driving. The 7 may not be as iconic or have the #want factor of social media, but it can be considered equal in terms of the driver’s appeal, if not the dog’s carrying capacity. (Does anyone really do that with their RS6, by the way, or is it just a term used similarly to people talking about washing the interior of their Land Rover Defenders?)
The M8 Competition Gran Coupe is the driver’s best car than the RS7, but its biggest problem is the M5 Competition, which is £ 22,000 cheaper and, for that economy, would be happy to forgo the more personalized interior design of the first. I would still have an RS6 instead of an RS7 as well.